MYTHS AND TALES OF THE UTA'MQT.
I. - COYOTE TALES.
1. NLi'kisEntem
(Lower and Upper Utamqt)[This story is told nearly in the same way as the second Coyote story in my "Traditions of the Thompson River Indians" pp. 21-29).1 The following parts are different. The first part of the story is not related; viz., about Coyote making a son of clay, gum, and quartz. The story begins as follows.]
Coyote lived with his son, who had two wives, one of whom was dark-skinned, and the other fair. Coyote was jealous of his son's wives, and coveted them for himself. He did not know, however, which of them he liked the better: so one night he made a very large fire, and, taking advantage of the bright blaze, he watched his chance to look at the women's privates. He was so favorably impressed with those of the fair one, that he at once made up his mind to get rid of his son, and take possession of his wife for himself. Eagle-plumes were scarce, and therefore highly valued: so he caused an eagle's nest to appear on a steep Cliff,2 with eaglets in it. He then called his son, and said to him, "I will show you where you can get eagle-feathers." Coyote took him to the cliff, and, pointing out to him the eagle's nest near the top, said, "Climb for it, I will help you." As his son climbed, Coyote looked upwards from time to time, and each time he did so the cliff grew higher.
[The rest of the story goes on just the same as in the Upper Thompson version until the incident of meeting the two old women is reached, when it is rotten rock they are handing to each other, instead of rotten wood as in the Upper Thompson version. From here on, the story is exactly the same as the Upper Thompson tale (omitting, of course, the examining of the women, which has already been mentioned) up to the point where NLi'kisEntem is feasting the people. Then it runs as follows.]
Coyote went to the feast with the other people, and, after eating, wiped his knife on his brow. Instead, however, of drawing the flat side of his knife over his brow, he drew the edge over it, thus making a large gash right across.
[Then the story is just the same, except that when Coyote falls down in the creek and is drifting, he changes himself into a wooden dish instead of into a piece of board, as in the Upper Thompson version. Then the story continues the same until Coyote is taking the salmon up the Fraser River, when he shouts as he proceeds ahead of the salmon, so as to let the people know that he is bringing that wonderful fish. The incindent of throwing the penis is the same, with this difference.]
1 See also James Teit, The Shuswap, Vol. II of this series, p. 622.
2 Some Lower Uta'mqt say it was a tree.
